Annuals: A Growing Guide for Easy, Colorful Gardens (Burpee) - Hardcover

Burpee is perhaps North America's best-known name in gardening, and the Burpee Basics series of colorful, concise growing guides to specific plant types is an appropriately basic, sound reference for novice gardeners. Annuals lives up well to the series subtitle, Growing Guides for Easy, Colorful Gardens, both because the book itself is simply, clearly written, and because annuals are easy to plant and care for, making them a beginning gardener's best friend. Author Emma Sweeney lays out the essentials of soil science, composting, hardiness zones, and supplies in the first chapter, moves on to garden planning and design in the second (including plans for one extremely low-maintenance garden, a cutting garden, and a self-sowing garden, among others), and fills us in on the basics of planting and maintenance in the third. Then it's on to the meat of the book: careful descriptions of 75 great annuals chosen for easy care, availability, and variety. The helpful appendix includes a monthly calendar of tasks, a table of the dates of first and last frosts in North America, and a very basic garden glossary. This is an extremely practical growing guide that new gardeners will use, wear out, and enjoy.

Burpee Basics: Growing Guides for Easy, Colorful Gardens
Down-to-earth handbook for beginning gardeners

"Our new series of concise gardening guidebooks continues Burpee's proud tradition of giving gardeners the essentials they need. These handy little books have a great deal in common with seeds: each one contains all you need to start a wonderful gardening experience.... Even the most experienced gardeners attend to the basic practices that you'll find so skillfully explained in these guides." —George Ball, Jr., President of W. Atlee Burpee, from the Foreword

Annuals
Get your first garden up and growing with annuals.

Annuals are wonderful plants for the beginner gardener. Burpee Basics: Annuals provides detailed plant portraits — accompanied by full-color photographs — for 75 of the most popular annuals, rating each one for ease in growing and maintenance.

• Jam-packed with accessible, quick-reference information on everything from using color in the garden and improving the soil to pest and disease control.
• Informative sidebars contain time-saving tips, suggested plant lists, practical garden advice, and solutions to common mistakes.
• Color photographs of planted beds and borders, along with instructional line drawings.
• Handy gardener's calendar simplifies garden maintenance throughout the year.
• Includes U.S. and Canadian zone maps.